1. Field of the Invention
Aspects of the present invention relate generally to tire changing tools and methods and more particularly to efficient systems and methods for mounting and dismounting tires.
2. Description of Related Art
Pneumatic tires are used by a wide range of vehicles including automobiles, trucks, motorcycles, racing karts, golf carts, and light aircraft, as well as for various other friction reducing and guiding applications in all sorts of equipment. In many applications, mounting and dismounting pneumatic tires from rims requires either expensive machinery or physical strength and skilled hand manipulation of the tire and rim.
For example, racing kart tires are typically mounted on five or six inch diameter rims using only hand manipulation. Mounting and dismounting is typically done using hand manipulation in conjunction with simple tools as shown in FIG. 1A and FIG. 1B. Typical mounting and dismounting tools include hand powered bead breaking tools, which are simple tools that dislodge a mounted tire bead from the bead perch of a rim making dismount easier, and tire levers such as the tire lever shown in FIG. 1A, which are prying tools used to force part of a tire bead onto a rim to aid mounting, or to force part of a tire bead away from a rim to aid dismounting.
Mounting tires by hand manipulation is typically a physically exhausting and time consuming process and requires skill in handling the tires, wheels, and tire changing tools. In order to mount a tire using existing methods, the tire is forced onto the rim using muscular force and then skillfully manipulated to distort the tire sufficiently to make it slip onto the rim. The skill required involves properly maintaining the angle of the rim with respect to the tire while simultaneously distorting the tire and applying appropriate force to push the tire onto the rim.
Dismounting a tire by hand requires use of a bead breaking tool to dislodge the tire bead from the rim, insertion of one or more levers between the tire bead and rim, followed by rotation of the tire levers to force the tire off of the rim. Improper use of these tools can result in damage to the tire bead, sidewall, or the rim as well as injury to the person dismounting the tire.
Some of the difficulty of existing mounting and dismounting methods occurs because the rim is frequently not fixed to any restraining base. Typically the rim and tire are on a floor or other hard surface, which may also be slippery, requiring the operator to restrain the assembly with their hands, feet, knees, or other body parts while simultaneously trying to manipulate the tire, wheel, and tools to mount or dismount the tire.
Mounting soft tires using existing methods is physically tiring to the hands and arms because of the need to use both manipulation of the tire and rim and physical force. When mounting tires of harder or more rigid construction, mounting using only the hands and hand tools becomes even more difficult because the tire is not easily distorted, making it very difficult for a tire installer to force the tire onto a rim. As a consequence, existing methods of hand mounting of tires can be both physically exhausting and mentally frustrating.
Existing tire changing technology also includes powered machinery such as the simplified exemplary machine shown in FIG. 2 which is used to mount and dismount tires. Existing machinery, however, is complex in design, expensive, and exposes tires to large stresses that can cause tire or rim damage and injury to the person mounting or dismounting the tire. Existing tire machinery is typically large and heavy which makes it difficult or impractical to move or transport the machinery easily or use the machinery in applications requiring portable equipment.
In addition, existing tire changing machinery typically requires rotation of a lever mechanism around the tire and rim in order to mount and dismount tires as shown in FIG. 1B and FIG. 2. This rotation forces the tire bead onto and off of the rim by moving a lever around the circumference of the rim or rotating the rim itself relative to the lever. This process has the disadvantage of excessively stressing and potentially damaging the tire bead, as well as potentially damaging the tire or rim or injuring the person mounting or dismounting the tire if their body parts become compressed or entangled with the rotating lever mechanism.
Conventional systems such as those described previously can be expensive, difficult to use, require a fairly high level of skill and strength, and may subject persons mounting or dismounting tires to injury. Accordingly, a need remains in the art for an efficient tire changing method and system that does not suffer from problems afflicting the conventional systems and methods.